Whirring Sounds and Fixed Points
by lookcloserhere
Summary: Éponine is laying on the ground at her death, waiting for her love when The Doctor comes to see her and tries to change her mind.


She knew the sound immediately. She didn't need to wonder what it was or where it came from like the first time it had fallen into her ears and graced her with its presence, she just knew. Her eyes shut automatically as the whirring faded, not wanting to see anymore. Blocking out the images of the terror and pain around her, the students she knew sprawled on the cobbled streets a few feet from where they were shot. But it was to no use. Memories flooded into her mind, a flash of the bluest blue she had ever seen coursing past her pupils as she saw the monsters and places- so unimaginable and so amazing- in a montage filling her heart. She ached, tears starting to fall of their own accord. Damn it. Why did he have to come back?

The click and swing of the door she loved, the door that she now cursed opened, and a gasp sounded into the air, please don't. Please forget, I don't want you to see. Footsteps followed quickly, coming closer and closer and then a hand at her cheek.

"Éponine! What are you doing?" his voice said, concerned and amazing, that bit of knowledge she could hear cursing her fate. She bit her lip, peeling her eyes open to find him crouched in front of her, his eyes- too old to be his own from his appearance- piercing into hers as they always did. She choked, coughing as a sharp ring ran through her spine, the hand that she had been covering spazzing uncontrollably. He saw, and his gaze hardened, his jaw tightening.

"What did you do?" He demanded, looking like the damaged man who called himself 'The Doctor' she had met and followed to places she didn't even know existed. The man she had watched fade away as they travelled through time and space.

"It is nothing. Don't worry about it, just please, you know what day it is, you may be hiding it but I know you do. I don't want you here, I don't want you to see this." She said it fiercely, even though all she felt was anguish as hisface turned to sorrow. He shook his head, grabbing her hand, grasping it.

"No. No. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was going to change, I was going to- it was going to be different. Éponine... You have so much ahead of you, you could do so much." He took her jaw, brushing a tear, the fiery passion edging into his vocal chords.

"Fixed points can't be changed." She said faintly, his eyes closed and his jaw clenched, he brought his head to hers, leaning them together briefly.  
"This wasn't a fixed point, Éponine! You weren't- this, what happened, you weren't a fixed point." He growled, pulling back and gripping at her, she shuddered, her breath shallowing.

"It doesn't matter now. I had to, you know why I had to. You knew when you told me what happened to him, I had to try, I had to! He didn't die, I saved him." She smiled weakly, noticing the tears starting to spill into her friend's eyes. He smiled back, choking a sob that changed into a laugh halfway through.

"Of course you did, you brilliant one," he closed his eyes again, pressing their foreheads again, "I can still save you-"

"No, you can't. One life for another, you taught me that, maybe not like this, but you did. If I live, he dies... I can't let him die. I'm okay, I don't feel any pain." She knew he could tell she was lying, but it still sliced through the air. A soothing thought they both clung to to ease the truth. Silence fell, as she breathed in and out, trying to regulate.

"We could stall, I can, I can find a way to stall this. In the TARDIS somewhere there's something I could find I'm sure of it- There's still just so much more that you could see, the whole universe! Out there, just waiting for us to explore. The falling of the third moon, the wilderness of the fourteenth king of Alcadran... We could still go. Right now! Just, say the word..." He faltered, and she pursed her lips, looking down at his bow tie and jacket, the sonic screwdriver poking from the pocket. How she longed to go with him in the TARDIS, to say yes let's go now, forget all of this. But then her love filled into her mind, and she knew she couldn't. She belonged here, in this time. For him.

"Please, say the word." He almost begged; and she sobbed once, grabbing at his jacket lapels with her cleaner hand that didn't hold a gaping hole where flesh used to be.

"Don't be alone. After me, please. Find someone who deserves a bit of an adventure in that magical box. You need someone, you can't be alone for too long. Do that for me." A sound came from her left and she knew he was coming, she gripped onto him harder, the tears falling harder now. "He's coming. You have to go. I can't let you- I don't want you to see this."  
"Oh, Éponine." He whispered, and she looked into his eyes once more, finally calm and at peace, the pain starting to fade. She noticed with surprise at the glowing coming from his hands, and she smiled. He was pulling it from her, making it easier.

"Thank you." She murmured, he caressed her cheek, wiping the rain now falling from her brow, pulling her hair from her face. He had finally given in, like he usually did with her, when she was determined and fierce and when he knew deep down what she wanted was right.

"Goodbye, Éponine."

"I thought you didn't like endings, Doctor." She teased, and he laughed through the tears. Pulling back after kissing the top of her head tenderly, taking his hand from hers, and looking at where the sound she had heard came from.

"It's him." He told her, and she knew he could see as her face lit at the thought of her Marius coming to her in the last moments of her life. "This wasn't for nothing. You were right once again, because of you he lives well, you've saved another one, Éponine." She smiled again sadly as he turned to go, almost not hearing the words that fell from his lips. "You will not be forgotten, you saved me from a darkness I would not have come back from. Thank you."


End file.
